July 1 | 12.9 Nautical Miles

OK, apologies now: no pictures from this sail!

With that out of the way... The forecast was for westerlies at 10 knots becoming SW, building to 15-20. So we headed out early, dropping the mooring at about 1015. We had a nice sail inside Clapboard and up towards Portland in flukey air, as the wind was already starting to shift. Soon enough we were in a west-southwesterly and tacked for the Hussey sound, thinking we might be able to sail out on a close reach.

In the Hussey we found the wind had much more of a southerly componant and we ended up beating out in building winds. Outside Long Island, we found the wind strong enough to require a reef even on a broad reach—probably around 25 knots with higher gusts.

With the reef tucked, we had a nice screaming broad reach along the back shore of Long Island before gybing around and heading in via Chandlers Cove. As we sailed into Chandelers we found the wind growing lighter and we actually had a very pleasant sail through Chandlers—perhaps a first! Inside we found the wind blowing at no more than 10 knots! Amazing difference. Took a nice reach back to the anchorage and were back on the mooring by 1330. Nice!